various aldermen for the
payment of interest due to contributors to the loan of L100,000, they were
ordered to be cancelled.(289) In November the lords of the council wrote
to the City for an extension of time for the repayment of the
L60,000.(290)

(M115)

On the 1st May Charles was married by proxy at Paris to Henrietta Maria.
When the news of the marriage treaty between England and France reached
London in the previous November the citizens showed their joy by bonfires
and fireworks.(291) They forgot for a while the danger likely to arise
from the heir to the throne allying himself in marriage with a Catholic
princess. On her arrival in the Thames in June the citizens gave her a
hearty welcome, whilst the fleet, which was about to set sail--few knew
whither--fired such a salute as the queen had never heard before.(292)

(M116)

In the meantime (1 May) Charles had issued his warrant to the lord mayor
for levying 1,000 men--"part of 10,000 to be raised by our dear father's
gracious purpose, according to the advice of both his Houses of
Parliament, in contemplation of the distress and necessity of our dear
brother and sister."(293) He thought that if he could only gain a victory
it would serve to draw a veil over his delinquencies. The City was to be
assisted by the county of Middlesex in raising the men,(294) and an
allowance was made for "coat and conduct money" for the soldiers at the
rate of eightpence apiece per day for their journey to Plymouth, the place
where they were to embark (L400), and four shillings a coat (L200), the
pay of a captain being four shillings a day.(295) The mayor's precept to
the aldermen to raise the men enjoined them to search all inns, taverns,
alehouses, "tabling-houses" and tobacco-houses, and to press, especially,
all "tapsters, ostlers, chamberlains, vagrants, idle and suspected
persons."(296) By August the condition of the troops at Plymouth was
pitiable. No money was forthcoming for wages, and the soldiers were forced
to forage for themselves in the neighbouring country. At last the fleet
set sail (8 Oct., 1625). Its destination proved to be Cadiz, whither it
was despatched in the hope of securing West Indian treasure on its way
home. The expedition, however, turned out to be as complete a failure as
that under Mansfeld in the previous year.

(M117)

The citizen soldiers returned to find their city almost deserted owing to
the ravages of the plague. In July the sickness had b